Ravinia 2022, Issue 2

PAVILION 7:00 PM TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2022 MAC SATURN † –Intermission– THE BLACK CROWES † Shake Your Money Maker played in its entirety, plus all the hits! † Ravinia debut THE BLACK CROWES While nesting in the alt-rock hotbed of northern Georgia, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson formed The Black Crowes in 1984 and steadily circled toward their eventual fame as blues-roots rockers the likes of which had been all but drowned out by the explo- sion of post-punk and grunge. Grown to a quintet, the group released their first album, Shake Your Money Maker , in 1990 and made a strong impression on rock radio with “Jealous Again.” “Twice as Hard” kept them in their groove until their cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle” hit the airwaves, registering their first number-one rock hit and even tilt- ing them into the top half of Billboard ’s Hot 100. Spins and sales kept ratcheting up over the next year with “She Talks to Angels” be- coming a top 40 hit and boosting the album to multi-platinum status. Moreover, early in 1991 The Black Crowes notched a truly “rock and roll” milestone: while on tour opening for ZZ Top, they disparaged the sponsor and found themselves hitting the road in a different sense. Coincidentally, their first al- bum peaked at number four around the same time. A year later, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion topped the charts on its release and quickly achieved platinum sales with the hit single “Remedy,” also adding “Sting Me,” “Thorn in My Pride,” and “Ho- tel Illness” to their catalogue of rock radio number-ones. With the addition of a sixth member, Amorica kept things golden in 1994, but lineups started shifting after 1996’s Three Snakes and One Charm . After 1999’s By Your Side , The Black Crowes teamed up with Jim- my page for a handful of shows that became Live at the Greek , featuring only Led Zeppe- lin and blues-rock classics. A hiatus followed 2001’s Lions . Upon their return with 2008’s Warpaint , The Black Crowes were in peak form, landing at number five on Billboard and starting a hot streak with 2009’s Before the Frost … Until the Freeze and 2010’s acous- tic Croweology . That proved to be their last studio recording, however, until this May’s EP 1972 , featuring six covers from that year to pave the way for new originals to come. The Black Crowes are making their Ravinia debut. MAC SATURN A five-piece ensemble fromDetroit, for nearly two years now Mac Saturn have been blend- ing pop-rock, funk, R&B, and (of course) Mo- tor City’s signature Motown into an energetic flurry of songwriting and dynamic live shows. In the past year, the quintet has taken the stage at The Fillmore Detroit and St. Andrew’s Hall, as well as Live Nation’s WRIF Fest at Pine Knob Music Theater, playing to sold-out rooms with their regiment of dedicated sup- porters and loyal team of friends. Mac Saturn is also a band in the purest sense of the word, living together in Detroit’s historic Boston Ed- ison district, where their creativity hums on a daily basis. The combination of the group’s on-stage swagger and their intensely collab- orative songwriting style garnered the atten- tion of Grammy-winning producers Al Sut- ton, Marlon Young, and Herschel Boone, best known as “The Rust Brothers” and for their work with rock band Greta Van Fleet. Togeth- er at Rust Belt Studios they’ve been hard at work on Mac Saturn’s debut EP—the band’s first recorded music with this lineup, having fielded a couple variations previously—with a plan to release the collection this summer. Mac Saturn is making its Ravinia debut. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 33